Saudi Arabia
Largest hydraulic project ever
A.Hak International B.V. is involved in the largest hydraulic project ever in Saudi Arabia. The city of Riyadh, which lies 700 metres above sea level, needs to be supplied with more drinking water. It currently consumes 270 litres per day per head of population, most of which comes from the sea. To this will be added another 200 litres or so per day once all the pipelines, desalination plants, pumping stations and the power station are complete.
As a partner of the Al Rashid-Hak consortium, A.Hak International B.V. is co-responsible for coating and internally cementing the water pipes, constructing just under 400 kilometres of pipeline, and building three pumping stations, 13 water reservoirs ranging from 140,000 to 170,000 cubic metres, a 360 km-long overground 13.8 KV power line and a SCADA system.
A.Hak International B.V. is concerned mainly with the mechanical work for the pipeline, including vents and drains, and the connections to the pumping and distribution stations and valves.
A very special aspect of the almost 400 kilometres of pipeline that need to be constructed is the 40 road crossings for which we are responsible. We are attacking this megaproject in collaboration with A.Hak Drillcon B.V. using two new tunnel boring machines, which enable us to drill up to 250 metres through hard rock at a diameter of 2.2 metres. So far we have successfully carried out sixteen drillings with a total length of 1045 metres. We have also done another five drillings with our machines for our consortium partner Al Rashid.
Training courses
For this project over 200 local workers have been selected and trained as fully fledged welders, grinders, fitter, operators and mechanics. It now involves just under 400 people of eleven different nationalities, the majority from India, the Philippines and Nepal. The training is being provided by our own staff from the Netherlands.
Eight billion dollars
The entire project is worth eight billion dollars. In addition to the part that we are responsible for with our partner Al Rashid, a 2500 MW power plant is being built, and a desalination plant capable of handling around a million cubic metres of water per day. A total of 910 kilometres of pipeline is being laid, with diameters ranging from 48” to 72” and wall thicknesses of 9.52 mm to 17.48 mm.
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